Electrical connectors

ABSTRACT

An electrical connector for attachment to a tape cable comprises a four-layer sandwich consisting of a toothed contact to engage one side of the cable, a resilient pad to engage the other side of the cable and a spring to press the contact into the cable, the sandwich being compressed and inserted into a tubular housing which holds it compressed. The housing may then be crimped onto the cable behind the sandwich.

Q United States Patent 1 3,599,173

{72] inventor Kenneth F. Bridle [56} References Cited 3 London EnglandUNITED STATES PATENTS P 826'639 2,725,545 11/1955 Gordon 339/99 [22]F1led May 21, i969 2,753,392 7/1956 Hebeler 1 t 174/84 [45] PatentedAug. 10, 1971 (73] Assi nee A B Electronics Components Limited 2769l5410/1956 Greenbaum 339/99 8 3,477,059 11/1969 Cole 339/99 Glamorgan,Wales 32 Priority May 22, 1968 FOREIGN PATENTS {33] Great Britain1,097,507 1/1961 Germany 339/97 1 3| 1 24430/68 Primary Examiner-StephenJ. Novosad Assistant Examiner-Joseph Ht McGlynn Attorney-Watson, Cole,Grindle & Watson [54] ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS ABSTRACT An electricalconnector for attachment to a tape cable comprises a four-layer sandwichconsisting of a toothed 9 Claims, 6 Drawing Figs.

contact to engage one s1de of the cable, a res1l1ent pad to en- [521 US.Cl H 339/99, gage the other side of the cable and a spring to press thecon- 339/176 tact into the cable, the sandwich being compressed and in-[5 l llll. Cl t t 1 1 t 1 H011 11/20 c -ted in a tubular housing whichholds it compressed The [50] Field 0 Search 339/17, 75, housing may thenbe crimped onto the cable behind the 3and 95, 9 176 wich.

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ATTORNEY Q ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS This invention relates to connectorsfor making electrical connections with a tape cable and to methods ofattaching the connector to the cable.

Tape cables comprise a metallic tape or side-by-side metallic tapesembedded in an insulating material such as a flexible plastics material.Connectors have already been proposed for making electrical connectionswith the metallic tapes of such cables, the connectors comprising acontact for each individual tape, each contact having at least one tootharranged to penetrate the insulating material and make contact with themetallic tape. The connectors so far proposed have been somewhat complexand have been so constructed that to connect them to the tape cable asomewhat complex and timeconsuming procedure is necessary.

According to the present invention, a method of attaching a tape cableconnector to a tape cable comprises: assembling together the tape cable,at least one contact having at least one tooth arranged to penetrate theinsulating material on one side of the cable, a bolster on the otherside of the cable, and a spring; pressing the assembly together tocompress'the spring; and inserting the compressed assembly endwise intoa housing which is arranged to retain the assembly with the springcompressed.

Thus, the assembly (which may be considered as a multilayer sandwichconsisting of the cable, contact, bolster and spring) may be pressedinto the housing by a process similar to that of corking a bottle.Preferably, after the assembly has been inserted into the housing, thetape cable is drawn longitudinally across the tooth which ploughsthrough the insulating material to improve or to establish electricalcontact with a metallic tape. After the tape has been drawnlongitudinally the tape may be clamped to the housing so as to transferloads between the cable and the housing, thus relieving the portion ofthe cable in contact with the teeth of such loads. A very satisfactoryway of clamping the tape is by crimping a portion of the housing on tothe tape.

The method of assembly makes it possible to employ a simple one-piecehousing which may be generally tubular and preferably has a flared mouthto assist the insertion of the as sembly into the housing. Preferablyalso the housing has inwardly directed means such as dimples, barbs orsetscrews for retaining the assembly in the housing. i

The invention may be carried into practice in various ways but oneconnector and its method of attachment to a tape cable in accordancewith the invention will now be described by way of example withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the connector attached to the tape cable;

FIG. 2 is a section on the line ll-ll of FIG. 1 showing the attachedconnector;

FIG. 3 shows the components of the connector prior to attachment to thetape cable; and

F lGS. 4, 5 and 6 show successive stages in the process of attachment.

Reference will first be made to FIGS. 1 and 2. The connector has aone-piece metal housing I which is approximately rectangular in crosssection perpendicular to the plane ofsection of FIG. 2 and has a flaredportion 2 leading away from an open mouth 3, a portion 4 of constantcross section behind the flared portion, a portion 5 of reducing crosssection, and a flared portion 6. The connector is attached to a tapecable 7, which comprises l4 metal tapes 8 which are embedded sideby-sidein a plastics insulating material. Contact with the tapes is made by 19contact members 10 each of which is made from a bar of brass and hasflanges 11 and 12 on one side at the ends to retain the barlongitudinally in a groove in a common insulating contact carrier 13. Onthe opposite side from the flanges, the bar has two chisebshaped teeth15 having sharp leading edges 150 with relieved surfaces 15b behindthem. The connector also includes a bolster in the form of a resilientpad 16 and, on the other side of the contact carrier 13, a rectangularconvoluted plate spring 17 which has a constant cross section (shown inFIG. 2) and extends across the entire width of the contact carrier.

The connector is attached to the tape cable in the following way. Asshown in FIG. 3, the end of the tape cable 7 is passed right through thehousing 1 so that it extends some distance beyond the housing. The pad16 is placed underneath the tape cable and the contact carrier 13 withthe contacts 10 is placed on top of the cable. The spring is placed ontop of the contact carrier 13. This four-layer sandwich is then placedbetween the jaws 18 of a tool which is not shown in the drawings. Thejaws are then moved together to compress the sandwich. The flared mouth3 of the housing is then moved against the jaws 18 on one side and apusher element 19 is moved against the sandwich on the other side.Movement of the pusher element is continued to push the sandwich throughthe flared mouth and into the section 4 of the housing where thesandwich is retained primarily by friction produced by the expandingforce of the spring 17 and the pad 16, but also by means of barbs 20formed by inwardly directed tongues stamped from the sides of thehousing. The jaws 21 of another tool then grip the tool cable and, whilethe housing is held stationary, the jaws 21 draw the cable across theteeth to the right (as viewed in FIG. 5) and this causes the teeth toplough into the insulation of the tape cable and make reliable electriccontact with the metal tapes along the full length of the relievedsurfaces 151; of the teeth. The tape cable is then anchored to the rearpart of the housing behind the compressed sandwich by crimping the rearpart of the housing on to the tape cable by means of crimping jaws 22.This completes the process, as shown in FIG. 6, and the jaws 21 and 22may be opened to release the connector.

The tools for carrying out the various processes described may takedifferent forms. For example, the jaws 18 may be af forded by a handtool similar to hand crimpers and having means for limiting the approachof the two jaws towards one another. The other jaws may also be affordedby simple hand tools. On the other hand it will be apparent that one ormore simple powered tools can be devised for carrying out the severalstages of the process.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A method of attaching a tape cable connector to a tape cableconsisting of a least one metallic tape embedded in insulating material,the method comprising:

forming a multilayer assembly by superimposing on one another layerscomprising said tape cable, at least one electrical contact having atleast one tooth arranged to penetrate the insulating material on oneside of said cable, a bolster on the other side-of said cable, and aspring;

pressing said multilayer assembly together to compress the spring; and

inserting the compressed multilayer assembly endwise into a tubularone-piece housing so that the longitudinal axis of the layers is alignedwith the longitudinal axis of the housing and whereby the assembly isretained in said housing with said spring compressed.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said bolster is resilient andsaid spring is positioned on the opposite side of said contact from saidcable.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein, after said multilayer assemblyhas been inserted into said housing, said tape cable is drawnlongitudinally across said tooth whereby said tooth is caused to plowthrough the insulating material on said one side of said cable.

4. A method according to claim 3 wherein, after said step of drawingsaid tape longitudinally, said tape is clamped to said housing.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein said tape is clamped to saidhousing by crimping aportion of said housing onto said tape.

6. A combination of a tape cable consisting of at least one metallictape embedded in insulating material and a tape cable connector attachedthereto, said connector comprising:

a generally one-piece tubular housing into one end of which said tapecable extends;

a multilayer assembly which comprises superimposed on one another layerscomprising at least one electrical contact having at least one toothextending through the insulating material on one side of said cable intoelectrical contact with said metallic tape, a bolster on the oppositeside of said cable, and a spring;

said multilayer assembly being located between opposite inwardly facingwall surfaces of said housing with the longitudinal axis of the layersaligned with the longitudinal axis ofthe housing; and

said walls being spaced apart by such a distance that said spring iscompressed whereby to press said tooth against said metallic tape.

7. A combination according to claim 6 wherein said housing has a flaredmouth to receive said compressed assembly.

8. A combination according to claim 6 wherein said housing has inwardlydirected means to retain said assembly therein.

9. A combination of a tape cable consisting of at least one metallictape embedded in insulating material and a tape cable connector attachedthereto, said connector comprising:

a one-piece generally tubular housing into one end of which said tapecable extends;

a multilayer assembly which comprises superimposed on one another layerscomprising at least one electrical contact having at least one toothextending through the insulating material on one side of said tape cableinto electrical contact with said metallic tape, a bolster on-theopposite side of said cable, and a spring;

said multilayer assembly being located between opposite inwardly facingwall surfaces of the housing with the longitudinal axis of the layersaligned with the longitudinal axis of the housing;

said assembly being retained within the housing by inwardly directedbarbs on the housing;

said walls being spaced apart by such a distance that said spring iscompressed whereby to press the said tooth against said metallic tape.

1. A method of attaching a tape cable connector to a tape cable consisting of a least one metallic tape embedded in insulating material, the method comprising: forming a multilayer assembly by superimposing on one another layers comprising said tape cable, at least one electrical contact having at least one tooth arranged to penetrate the insulating material on one side of said cable, a bolster on the other side of said cable, and a spring; pressing said multilayer assembly together to compress the spring; and inseRting the compressed multilayer assembly endwise into a tubular one-piece housing so that the longitudinal axis of the layers is aligned with the longitudinal axis of the housing and whereby the assembly is retained in said housing with said spring compressed.
 2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said bolster is resilient and said spring is positioned on the opposite side of said contact from said cable.
 3. A method according to claim 1 wherein, after said multilayer assembly has been inserted into said housing, said tape cable is drawn longitudinally across said tooth whereby said tooth is caused to plow through the insulating material on said one side of said cable.
 4. A method according to claim 3 wherein, after said step of drawing said tape longitudinally, said tape is clamped to said housing.
 5. A method according to claim 4 wherein said tape is clamped to said housing by crimping a portion of said housing onto said tape.
 6. A combination of a tape cable consisting of at least one metallic tape embedded in insulating material and a tape cable connector attached thereto, said connector comprising: a generally one-piece tubular housing into one end of which said tape cable extends; a multilayer assembly which comprises superimposed on one another layers comprising at least one electrical contact having at least one tooth extending through the insulating material on one side of said cable into electrical contact with said metallic tape, a bolster on the opposite side of said cable, and a spring; said multilayer assembly being located between opposite inwardly facing wall surfaces of said housing with the longitudinal axis of the layers aligned with the longitudinal axis of the housing; and said walls being spaced apart by such a distance that said spring is compressed whereby to press said tooth against said metallic tape.
 7. A combination according to claim 6 wherein said housing has a flared mouth to receive said compressed assembly.
 8. A combination according to claim 6 wherein said housing has inwardly directed means to retain said assembly therein.
 9. A combination of a tape cable consisting of at least one metallic tape embedded in insulating material and a tape cable connector attached thereto, said connector comprising: a one-piece generally tubular housing into one end of which said tape cable extends; a multilayer assembly which comprises superimposed on one another layers comprising at least one electrical contact having at least one tooth extending through the insulating material on one side of said tape cable into electrical contact with said metallic tape, a bolster on the opposite side of said cable, and a spring; said multilayer assembly being located between opposite inwardly facing wall surfaces of the housing with the longitudinal axis of the layers aligned with the longitudinal axis of the housing; said assembly being retained within the housing by inwardly directed barbs on the housing; said walls being spaced apart by such a distance that said spring is compressed whereby to press the said tooth against said metallic tape. 